In Too Deep
by Monarules
Summary: Lorelai is in too deep to back out of her parents' house. I don't own it.


Richard trudged upstairs to his bedroom for the sixteenth time that day

Richard trudged upstairs to his bedroom for the sixteenth time that day. He opened the door hoping to find his wife out of bed and dressed, but his hopes were quickly dashed. Emily was in the middle of the bed. She was pale and frowning. As it always seems to be now, Richard thought glumly.

Lorelai had left her parents' house just a week ago, and now, she had a new life with new friends and a new job. Mia Kingston had taken her and baby Rory in without a second thought. She had been so nice to them that Lorelai just hated to let her down. She found herself wondering what her parents had done when they found her note. 'Probably nothing,' she thought bitterly before pushing the thought from her mind. There were beds to be made.

Emily stayed in the bed. She knew that she should get up and that Richard was worried about her, but she just couldn't. How could her little girl just pick up and leave with only a formally written note as a clue of where she had gone. That note. Oh she despised that wretched note. The first words "Dear Emily and Richard," made the tears pour from her eyes with a vengeance.

Richard stood in the doorway watching as his wife cried from a broken heart. That had become normal, but he just couldn't get used to his strong wife sobbing for their daughter and grand daughter. And he had become worried about her as well. She hadn't eaten anything since they found the note. And she hadn't slept either. Richard sighed. He did not want his daughter's leaving to destroy his wife and leave him alone. But at the rate Emily was going, it would. But he wouldn't let it destroy her. He couldn't. So he decided that he was going to make Lorelai fix the damage she'd done. He walked away from the door without being noticed by his wife.

Lorelai had just finished making the first bed of the morning as Mia came to tell her that she had a phone call.

"Hello"

"Lorelai, this is your father."

"Dad, I do not want to talk to you."

"Lorelai, wait. I need your help, please?"

"What's wrong?"

Richard sighed. He did not want to tell Lorelai over the phone only to subject his wife's name to be mocked. He wanted to show her. Maybe seeing Lorelai would snap Emily back into reality.

"Can you please come home so I can show you? I don't"

"Home? I can't come home, Dad. I'm already here. You can't make me come back there. It's not my home anymore. Don't call me anymore and make sure to pass the message on to Mom," Lorelai yelled angrily.

She hung up the phone so she could finish making the beds.

Lorelai had hung up on him. She would never want to help him he reasoned. But it was for Emily. It was for Lorelai's mother. Surely she could understand that. She had to.

Richard was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't realize that there was no dial tone. "Hello"

"Yes, who is this?"

"Mia Kingston. I own the Independence Inn"

"You know my daughter, then. Lorelai Gilmore."

"Yes, I know Lorelai very well. Is there something wrong?"

"I was hoping that Lorelai would come back for a visit. Just to see her mother. She said no."

"I can try to talk to her for you."

Richard ignored the sting that a complete stranger had to arrange for his daughter to come visit him and her mother.

"Thank you so much."

With that he hung up the phone. Lorelai needed to see what she'd done to her strong vibrant mother first hand. She'd never believe him if he just told her.

Mia found her best maid playing with her favorite little girl. But Lorelai seemed far away. Mia had seen this look before. Lorelai had her moments where she truly missed her home and her parents, though Mia knew that she'd rather die than admit it.

She tread carefully into the room. "Lorelai?"

Lorelai looked up at her with a fake bright smile. "Yes, Mia?"

"Why didn't you talk to your father?"

"He called back? After I told him not to. Why am I not surprised?"

"Actually, he didn't call back. I don't think you hung the phone up right."

Lorelai's anger faded a moment as she replied quietly, "Oh."

"I think you should talk to him, Lorelai. He sounded so sad."

"Mia, you don't know him. He's the King of Manipulation. He called that place home. He just wants me to come back so he can control me more. I won't let them do that anymore. It's not just me anymore, it concerns Rory. And I will not let her grow up like I did."

"Lorelai, how exactly do you know that he wants you to come back to stay? It sounded to me like he just wanted you to visit. To see your mother, for some reason. Do you know why?"

Lorelai thought for a minute. Her mother? Why didn't her father say anything about her mother when she'd talked to him? 'Probably because you didn't give him the chance,' that voice that sometimes sided with her parents voiced in her mind.

By then her curiosity was peaked, "Okay, I'll talk to him. But no promises."

Richard was once again staring at his wife. The pale woman in the bed had not moved as what had become usual in the Gilmore house. He wondered how Emily would take seeing Lorelai again just to leave. Would it hurt her again? What would it accomplish? Had he made the wrong decision?

She knew that she had to get up, if her legs would only let her. Her heart was broken and she couldn't control her body anymore. She ate, but only barely. It was all she could do to eat even that. Her heart and body were shattering because her little girl took her baby and left with only that blasted wretched note.

Richard stared at his wife in shock. He didn't know that she'd saved that note. The note that broke both of their hearts. He wanted to burn it then and there for hurting his wife but he restrained. It was hard to do. He was hurt too.

Lorelai shivered as she reached the Gilmore Mansion. She'd always hated the house as it contained everything that she'd hated. Even her parents. With a slow sad sigh, she was glad that she'd left Rory at home. Even if her parents had to see her for some odd reason, they would never make her stay if they knew that the baby was not with her. Thoughts of Rory made her smile as she reached the doorbell. She was just about to ring it when her father opened the door.

"Don't."

"Don't what?" Lorelai was on the verge of being angry when her father shouted at her in a whisper.

"Don't ring the doorbell. It won't make her get up anyway, but I don't want her to know that you're here at the moment.

"Who won't get up? Dad, what's going on?"

"Lorelai just come in. I'll explain in a few minutes. But I must ask you to keep your voice down. I don't know what hearing it would do to her."

Lorelai stayed quiet as they walked up the stairs to her parents' bedroom. She stared at her mother. A vibrant strong woman she was, but not anymore. She was weak and hurt. Worry and anger flared within her. 'Is this what he wanted to show me? That my leaving messed up their lives just like I did when I was pregnant.'

Lorelai turned to look at her father; he was staring at her mother with heartbreak and a deep sadness in his eyes. A new shock appeared in them though as she turned back to the woman in the bed.

The note. That note that she'd left for them to find thinking that they wouldn't care? Why would her mother keep that note? She watched in shock as her mother pressed the note to her chest and sobbed for a while.

Lorelai would've loved to have left then and there. But she had promised her father that she'd stay to talk to him. And she was in too deep to back out now. He motioned her back to the stairs, and she left the woman crying in the bed begging the image to stop glaring at her when she blinked. It didn't work.

"Dad? Why is Mom still in bed?"

Richard was stunned at the lack of emotion in her voice. Did she really not care about them as much as she claimed?

"She hasn't left that bed, Lorelai. I doubt that she will. She has lost so much weight already that I'm starting to worry. If only she could get up and get some fresh air and got rid of that note."

"How much weight has she lost?" Lorelai asked in fake concern. So what if she didn't get out of bed for a while. It couldn't be as bad as her father was making it out to be. He was just being overprotective.

"About 25 pounds, I'd say. Though I don't know for sure. She hasn't let me hold her since you…" Richard left the rest of the sentence drop. He knew that she was getting angry and that it would be best to let it go.

"What? This is my fault? Because you were being so controlling that I couldn't stand it anymore?" Lorelai bit back in her loudest voice. Let her hear. She didn't care anymore. And that was the lie she told herself.

"Lorelai, please. I don't know what hearing your voice will do to her. Please don't hurt her. Please."

Hearing her father address her with a frightened voice took all of the anger out of her. She didn't want him to have that affect on her. But she kept her voice down. She didn't want to hurt her mother as he put it. Okay so she did, but later.

He looked back out of his study hoping and dreading to see his wife out of bed at the top of the stairs. She wasn't there.

He motioned for Lorelai to follow him quietly up the stairs to check on his wife. She was sitting up this time as she came into their view. Richard quickly stepped in front of his daughter and addressed his wife.

"Is everything alright, Emily?"

Emily ignored him. She seemed to look right through him. "Lorelai? Lorelai? Lorelai!" she screamed in painful earnest. She was looking around like a wild animal caught in a trap. Richard supposed that in some she was. She was trapped in her own pain and she couldn't be released. Richard was about to tell her that Lorelai was there when he felt a rush of cold air hit his back. His daughter, their Lorelai, had run out of their lives again. It hurt more than he thought it would.

A month later and Lorelai still hadn't returned, but Emily had finally gotten out of bed. But she always wondered why she'd heard Lorelai's voice that day, though she never mentioned it to Richard after the first time she asked. His eyes and face hardened.

She would never know that her daughter had seen her that way. It didn't bring them any closer, but a year later, Lorelai arranged the holidays together. Richard wondered what changed her mind. He often saw her eyes soften just a second before addressing her mother. Maybe things would get better after all.


End file.
